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Michael Smiley

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hey all turf pros.

Just wanted to do a survey on everyone's average per man hour rates. I have heard most professionals state that $60 a man hour is a fairly standard price when it comes to mowing and/or landscaping. Do you charge more or less than $60 a man hour? I live in Huntsville AL. Anyone else from Alabama or some other southern states know what the going rates are? There is a lot of competition where I live, so the prices are slightly lower based on my knowledge. Our crew works very efficiently though, so I think we can easily crank out $60 a man hour.

Also curious as to how much you charge for gross lot sq footage, and net turf sq footage. One of my properties is 12600 gross lot sq feet (8700 turf sq feet), and I charge $41. Does that sound correct?

Thanks in advance!
Michael
 
#4 ·
Solo here. $60 for pruning. $70-80 for leaf work. Mowing ranges from $65-$90. Mowing is done on a piece work price structure so in the spring the $/pmh is lower but when summer hits it is much higher....unless the lawn has lots of wet crabgrass. Spreading hardwood mulch averages around $60 but pine straw can be upwards of $70-75.
 
#5 ·
On 8700 sq ft of turf to cut we would be close to $75 for mow edge and trim. One resi prop we cut is 11k sq ft of turf and it's $105.

But I don't know your set up as far as equipment. On that prop we've got a zero, a stander and two guys trimming and edging all at the same time.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
kemco said:
On 8700 sq ft of turf to cut we would be close to $75 for mow edge and trim. One resi prop we cut is 11k sq ft of turf and it's $105.

But I don't know your set up as far as equipment. On that prop we've got a zero, a stander and two guys trimming and edging all at the same time.
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Wow that price is way higher than I would have expected. I would love to make $75 a yard like that lol. Is it possible you could post an address of one the properties you service, or one that is near the area you service and tell me how much you would charge? I want to run it through my bidding system and see how close I come to your price.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
sjessen said:
Solo here. $60 for pruning. $70-80 for leaf work. Mowing ranges from $65-$90. Mowing is done on a piece work price structure so in the spring the $/pmh is lower but when summer hits it is much higher....unless the lawn has lots of wet crabgrass. Spreading hardwood mulch averages around $60 but pine straw can be upwards of $70-75.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Lawns take you longer in spring because of extra growth?
 
#8 ·
On our Bermuda and zoysia lawns we offer a first cut low and bag it (only time we ever pull baggers out). 50% premium. But I've tracked it and doing this gets us on average 2 more mows per customer, after the low and bag that is.
 
#9 ·
PM me I'll give u an address of a 5200 turf sq ft we cut for $57. And that's with a slight discount because when she was living we also had the herbicide and fert apps. It was $60 per cut.
 
#11 ·
kemco said:
On 8700 sq ft of turf to cut we would be close to $75 for mow edge and trim. One resi prop we cut is 11k sq ft of turf and it's $105.

But I don't know your set up as far as equipment. On that prop we've got a zero, a stander and two guys trimming and edging all at the same time.
Click to expand...
So how long total / $ per man hours ? I always felt it's ridiculous (no offense) using a ztr and 3-4 guys on small lawn routes - you are just tripping over each other & adding to windshield time.
But I guess your pricing makes up for it.
 
#12 ·
GRANTSKI said:
So how long total / $ per man hours ? I always felt it's ridiculous (no offense) using a ztr and 3-4 guys on small lawn routes - you are just tripping over each other & adding to windshield time.
But I guess your pricing makes up for it.
Click to expand...
Crews work well for clusters of residential. Onesies, not so much.
 
#13 ·
I guess small is a subjective term. On average we cut 30 a day. Not all that size of course. And some streets we cut multiple properties in a row. I know many crews do better than us on residential. When we are full swing we are grossing around $6k a week. A 5 day work week. We rarely go overtime unless we are behind due to rain. I'm getting old LOL and I'm concentrating on building our chem side more anyway. The 70 hour work weeks are now long gone. Of course it's a bell curve of gross receipts during the summer. How does that gross compare to what y'all are doing? Again I know many that do a lot better than us. As well as those that don't do as well as far as gross.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
kemco said:
I guess small is a subjective term. On average we cut 30 a day. Not all that size of course. And some streets we cut multiple properties in a row. I know many crews do better than us on residential. When we are full swing we are grossing around $6k a week. A 5 day work week. We rarely go overtime unless we are behind due to rain. I'm getting old LOL and I'm concentrating on building our chem side more anyway. The 70 hour work weeks are now long gone. Of course it's a bell curve of gross receipts during the summer. How does that gross compare to what y'all are doing? Again I know many that do a lot better than us. As well as those that don't do as well as far as gross.
Click to expand...
Btw kemco, I started a conversation with you about the property address.
 
#15 ·
I'm not happy if the mowing average drops below $80 per hour much happier around $100 per hour. Minimum charge is $30 which covers 15 minutes total job time 10 for work 5 for drive.

Landscaping is usually in the $100-$150 range.

I'll add I'm solo and in a high cost of living area doing small inner city properties.
 
#17 ·
Solo- $60/hr.
 
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#18 ·
I was getting $80/hr in the early 2000s on average for mowing
But I was BIDDING $42/hr back then

Reason being ZTRs were relatively newish at the time and my production rates were based on wall behinds with sulkies and three wheel riders.

as more people bought ZTRs and “caught on” it wasn’t so easy to make fast money on mowing

average is $60
An hour

you can get better hourly average on smaller lawns on tighter routes with minimums

example you can do 20 each $30 minimum lawns in an 8 hour day - average $75 an hour solo

but bigger lawns at $60 an hour and more travel time , you’re lucky to average 60
 
#19 ·
[QUOTE="TPendagast, post: 6130092, member: 71586"

you can get better hourly average on smaller lawns on tighter routes with minimums

example you can do 20 each $30 minimum lawns in an 8 hour day - average $75 an hour solo

but bigger lawns at $60 an hour and more travel time , you're lucky to average 60[/QUOTE]
This has been my experience as well.
 
#20 ·
Residential or commercial? If we are talking residential our mowing crews are lucky if they average 45 - 50 per man hour. That is with efficient routes and productive crews.

Competition is abundant and prices are in the toilet for mowing in my area. We make money off of mowing but profit per job is low. I don't consider mowing a big money maker, but it is steady revenue and ties into everything, advertising, customer acquisition, higher profit work, etc.
 
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